We woke early and read our books, then had a delicious breakfast – quality and quantity being confirmed again.  We then sat on the bus as it went up a bit along the camino route – which went south west at this point towards the town of Pejibaye.  Near the top of the hill the bus stopped and decanted the group.  We then ambled down the hill, looking over to the spectacular valley below.  We did 3 separate bits of walk today – adding up to maybe 12 miles – with bus rides in between.  This was stages 6, 7 and 8 of the camino (for those following on a map (probably not that many to be honest).  The first notable place we passed was a self contained “smurf village”.  There were distinct religious connertations and who knew that the smurfs were responsible for world peace, love tanquility and mindfulness.  Now we know!  The garden was lovely and it was clearly someone’s private (or not so private) passion.

The next section of the walk was through sugar cane fields.  The promised mud never appeared and the walk was reasonably flat, so it was easy walking.  The highlight of this part were two flame of the forest trees – with brilliant orange leaves.  We see these magnificant trees across the forests, with their bright orange leaves standing out against a green background.

Then we reached our lunch stop – plentiful gallo pinto; the national dish of rice and red beans (that we might just have had enough of by the end of the month), but also fresh salad and fried fish.  We are gradually getting to know the fellow members of the group and they are all very different and come from different backgrounds, but are melding as a group really well.  You might think that a Californian criminal defence appeal lawyer and a Swiss dairy farmer would have little in common but they both get excited by seeing colourful birds, have a common commitment to hiking and are determined to have fun on this trip.  As the Irish would say “the craic is good”.

We walked through the small town of Pejibaye, which had the largest bicycle in the main square I have ever seen. 

There was also a low key memorial to women who had been killed by men.  Domestic violence is reported to be increasingly recognised as a serious issue in thie country, and rates of domestic violence are rapidly increasing. Covid is reported as a factor, as in the UK, but also it may well be that greater recognition and publicity of this serious issue has created a climate where there are more reports as opposed to this reflecting a real increase in the level of violence.

Every Costa Rican town seems to have three things – a church, a school and a football field – all in the centre of town.  I irreverently speculated that the relative priority is shown by the space occupied by these iconic symbols of each town.  The church is generally the smallest, then the school and of course the football field dominates.  The country is in mourning because, despite being in a group that did not contain Brasil or Argentina, Costa Rica failed to qualify for this year’s world cup.  For a football mad nation this seems to have been a matter of national shame.  We kept quiet about the fact that England (and even Scotland) had qualified.  Apologies to Scottish readers for that “even” but they understand – I hope.

After the town the camino followed a road up and then above the Rio Pejbaye river valley.  The sun was out, we had walked for about 12 miles and it all felt very good as we ambled along.  The views over the valley and to the dense jungle beyond were stunning.  It was a magic couple of hours.

Then we reached our stopping point for the night, an ecological school where tents were set up for us inside the very basic buildings.  A cold shower and a cup of coffee improved our outlook and we played yet another few games of backgammon (a purchase in San Jose and taking up far too much room in the rucksack).  Then dinner prepared by Katia and a colleague who were not only superb cooks but also have just achieved a gold medal in the world rafting championships (senior category).  The competition took place in Malaysia and the Costa Rican team had to fund most of their own costs.  The rivers here are wonderful for pratising rafting, which operates in a similar way to white water canoeing, including gates they have to go into upstream.    They were two seriously impressive althletes!

Then to bed – which was quite cold with only a flimsy sleeping bag – so we were both fully clothed and still a bit cold.  But not anythign like as cold as our friends and family in the UK who had to endure Storm Goretti.  We feel for you – honestly!